Haryana battle to draw against Maharashtra

Uttar Pradesh's match against Vidarbha ended in an expected draw, but not before UP secured three points for the first-innings lead to end the round on top of the Group B points table. Vidarbha had begun the day on 237 for 6, still playing their first innings, in reply to UP's mammoth 548. Hemang Badani, who was unbeaten on 69 overnight, could add only seven more runs to his score as Vidarbha were bowled out for 308. Piyush Chawla, who was picked in the India Test team for the Nagpur Test against England, claimed No. 10 Sandeep Singh as his first victim of the match, finishing with figures of 32.3-2-108-1. Captain Ranjit Paradkar, who had injured himself while fielding, did not bat at all.

Despite taking a 240-run lead, Suresh Raina chose not to enforce the follow-on, and then came out to open for UP. While UP lost their other opener, Tanmay Srivastava for a duck, Raina went on to score 105 not out before play ended with UP on 175 for 3.

Haryana batted out 116 overs in their second-innings in their second innings to successfully draw their match against Maharashtra in the game that pitted the bottom-rung teams of the group against each other. Haryana began the day on 75 for 2, 208 runs behind Maharashtra. Overnight batsman Sunny Singh went on to make a half-century, the only one of the innings, but the rest of the line-up too contributed cameos to keep Haryana afloat. All the batsmen who batted on the day got into double digits, right down to No. 9 Mohit Sharma. At stumps, Haryana were 28 behind Maharashtra, but importantly only seven down.

The wait lasted five games, as Karnataka recorded their first outright win to spark life into an underwhelming Ranji season. Only two results were realistic going into the final day, as Delhi, set an improbable 410, were left fighting to save the match after losing three in a hurry the previous evening. Karnataka were held up by a century stand from the experienced due of Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia, but the wicket of Manhas opened the floodgates as Karnataka wrapped up the game by 159 runs not long after tea.

Read the full match report here.